Cargo Records

At The Mall

Before making his name as a DJ & producer, and before founding Stones Throw, Peanut Butter Wolf was programming drums for a one-man punk rock disco army known as Baron Zen

Known, that is, to almost no-one, as Baron Zen did not play shows or release records, rejecting all forms of publicity, and above all, rejecting the boundaries between hip hop, disco, punk, rock and pop. Baron Zen's recording career spans 1988 to 1992, the best of which is collected on this album. He was evidently ahead of his time almost 20 years ago, but the times have been threatening to catch up, and today he sounds like the missing link between PIL and DFA, where 80s American suburban garage punk bands meet the current catch-all DJ culture. Baron Zen is DIY music that wears its pop influence on a big bright t-shirt : covers of Joy Division's 'Walked In Line' rub up against The Gap Band's 'Burn Rubber', while Katrina & The Waves' 'Walking On Sunshine' vies with the hi-nrg disco classic 'When I Hear Music' by Debbie Deb, alongside 10 original tracks, many of which are odes to the frustration of being a hip hop disco DJ stuck in suburbia.